As an adult, I always thought I was average-looking at best. I’ve been told many times since I was young that I’m ugly. My aunts told me my lips were too big, and that my sister had gorgeous thin lips with a perfect cupid’s bow. So I spent the rest of my life believing my lips were ugly.

When I was 12 years old, a boy took my photo from MySpace and posted it on his Xanga. He wrote that I was the ugliest girl in the entire school—and that this other chick in his class was the hottest and would grow up to be a model. I reported it to the school administration, and he took it down. This was the first case of cyberbullying the school had ever dealt with. It was 2007—cyberbullying wasn’t really a thing back then.